Little Women

The girls gradually begin to embrace the Laurences, despite the gruff and initially-intimidating nature of Mr. Laurence and the “fact that they were poor and Laurie rich, for this made them shy of accepting favors which they could not return” (61). Beth, however, remains fearful of Mr. Laurence, despite his attempts to entice her with the grand piano and her sisters’ apparent ease and enjoyment in the mansion.

When Mr. Laurence hears that Beth’s sensitivity to him has prevented her from coming over, he proceeds to mitigate the situation. Knowing of Beth’s attraction to the piano, he meets Mrs. March to discuss the underutilized instrument at his home and asks if one of her girls would “like to run over, and practice on it now and then, just to keep it in tune” (63). Beth gratefully volunteers for this opportunity and begins to warm toward Mr. Laurence, who finds in Beth a little girl he had once, “with eyes like [Beth’s]” (63). The following day, after a few false starts, Beth musters the courage to enter the Laurence household, and as soon as she comes upon the piano, she forgets her inhibitions and plays in an enraptured delirium until she has to go home for dinner.